Lessons From The Paleo Diet

Not since paleolithic times has it been so fashionable to eat like a hunter-gatherer.

While everyone from professional athletes to mommy bloggers seems to be touting the whole food, grain-free, meat-heavy Paleo Diet, it's not without its critics.

The Paleo Diet -- which also goes by the names "Caveman" or "Stone Age" diet -- advocates eating pre-agrarian foods. If our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn't eat it, Paleo eaters don't want to eat it either. That means no grains, legumes, dairy, alcohol or sugar. Instead, Paleo eaters choose grass-fed beef, lamb and chicken, fish, fruit and vegetables (although many eschew nightshade veggies, like eggplant and tomato). In an ideal Paleo diet, practitioners would stick to wild animals -- which have less fat and saturated fat than farmed -- and forage for plants.

Following this plan, it is easy to see the appeal: the list of forbidden foods closely resembles the foods Harvard Medical School counsels patients to avoid.

“Clinical trials have shown that the Paleo Diet is the optimum diet that can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, blood pressure, markers of inflammation, help with weight loss, reduce acne, promote optimum health and athletic performance," Loren Cordain, Ph.D., Colorado State University professor and author of The Paleo Diet told WebMD.

Still, critics question the logic of following this eating pattern. After all, humanity thrived after adopting an agrarian way of life.

"It seems more a gimmick than a well-thought-out scientifically diet plan," says Lawrence Cheskin M.D., FACP, director of Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center. "Remember, we lived to an average of 25 years of age on that diet, so I’m not sure where it is a great plan to follow now."

Cheskin added that he certainly agreed with some tenants of the diet, including the emphasis on whole, natural foods, but was concerned about the level of meat.

That echoes the concerns outlined by David Katz, M.D., HuffPost blogger and director of the Yale Prevention Research Center, who wrote that he worried dieters might confuse supermarket meat with the healthful game of yore:

Modern meat is not Stone Age meat. There were no wild corned beef, salamis or pastramis in the Stone Age, so processed meat is certainly off the Paleo diet menu. There were no grain-fed cattle; no pigs fed slop; and no domesticated feed animals raised without demands on their muscles, either.

What's more, according to a U.S. News and World Report analysis, a panel of doctors and nutritionists determined that the diet was not a good choice for curtailing diabetes, improving heart health or losing weight.

But regardless of how you feel about Paleo, there are some tips and lessons that just about anyone can get behind.

1 Avoid Processed Foods

This is Paleo orthodoxy, but it is also general nutritional advice from Michael "Eat Food" Pollan to Harvard's School of Public Health: Consuming whole foods, as close to nature as possible, is healthful.

2 Pair Diet With Exercise

Paleo has a close connection to CrossFit -- the intense HIIT program. And while the "sport of fitness" isn't for everyone, the idea that a diet and exercise plan should be part of a whole healthy lifestyle approach is a good one: Research shows that emphasizing the two together is the best way to achieve weight loss.

3 Achieve A Good Salt Balance

By eliminating processed foods, which are the major source of sodium in the American diet, Paleo eaters eat a low-sodium diet without even trying. What's more, the plan provides nearly twice the typical amount of potassium that a typical American diet contains. That combination of low sodium and high potassium is a recipe for good vascular health and low blood pressure.

Strict eating guidelines make restaurant dining and quick snacks at the vending machine a little trickier. That means most of the food you eat comes from your own kitchen. And that means you know exactly what's in it and how it will affect your body.

6 Don't Count Calories

Paleolithic hunter-gatherers certainly didn't, goes the reasoning. While calories do count -- if you eat a huge number of them, you will gain weight -- they are not a metric of healthfulness. Nutritionists agree that calories are merely a jumping off point toward looking at the health value of food. Nutrient density is a far better measure for health.

Cultish crap. Paleo is neither logical nor sensical. It belongs hand in hand with the non-existent programming of crossfit.

I totally agree. It all just annoys me. Pretentious athletes. I'd rather go the Henry Rollins route. Eat a lot and lift heavy in my garage barefoot than spend $100 a month so I can be part of their elite 'crew'. The only thing badass about CF is they puke a lot from working out and their women clean the same amount the men do.

I totally agree. It all just annoys me. Pretentious athletes. I'd rather go the Henry Rollins route. Eat a lot and lift heavy in my garage barefoot than spend $100 a month so I can be part of their elite 'crew'. The only thing badass about CF is they puke a lot from working out and their women clean the same amount the men do.

I've never seen a single super athlete or super anything that used this diet. I just see mediocrity.

Considering that diet is 80% of anything physical, I'd say that the physical results of the diet says alot about the diet itself...

Maybe I read it wrong. I thought the author doesn't support the paleo diet. There was a quote from the Phd who wrote the book, then 2 quotes from what I assume would be peers of that person, saying it's questionable at best. Something like, "Our ancestors only had life expectancy of about 25 years on that diet. Maybe it's not such a good idea..."

Just to be clear, I agree with the author; IMO the paleo diet is a fad masquerading as logic. It just doesn't make much sense at all. People have prospered since paleo times, almost entirely due to the advent of agriculture. The whole idea that "everything is wrong now", and "it used to be right but we humans screwed it up" is just nonsense. I won't go any further into that here, only to call bull**** on the whole concept.

Maybe I read it wrong. I thought the author doesn't support the paleo diet. There was a quote from the Phd who wrote the book, then 2 quotes from what I assume would be peers of that person, saying it's questionable at best. Something like, "Our ancestors only had life expectancy of about 25 years on that diet. Maybe it's not such a good idea..."

Just to be clear, I agree with the author; IMO the paleo diet is a fad masquerading as logic. It just doesn't make much sense at all. People have prospered since paleo times, almost entirely due to the advent of agriculture. The whole idea that "everything is wrong now", and "it used to be right but we humans screwed it up" is just nonsense. I won't go any further into that here, only to call bull**** on the whole concept.

Agreed. I wasn't suggesting an argument by saying that. Just simply saying that regardless what any expert has to say about it on paper, it doesn't do any better and possibly only worse in real life measures.

Agreed. I wasn't suggesting an argument by saying that. Just simply saying that regardless what any expert has to say about it on paper, it doesn't do any better and possibly only worse in real life measures.

Ok, I understand, and I agree with what you're saying. It often seems that once a person is in a position to be called an expert, and presumably to write something on the subject they're supposed to be expert on or otherwise speak with a voice of authority, that they're too compromised by that very position to make much actual sense. Instead they have to pander to the opinions of those who put them on that pedestal. In short, the expert game these days is more about politics than game.

What are you people thinking wow all those grains have made you guys ignorant and naive. The paleo diet is so much better for you than what you're doing now. You may feel fine now but give it a true shot for 30 days and see how you feel and perform. You'll clear up any autoimmune issues and gut problems. Do your home work before dismissing it. Geez. Look up robb wolf and read his blog it's very interesting and makes more sense than loading up on grains. Oooo yea and don't forget that the people of the paleo times also didn't have houses, vaccines, and they to we're being hunted by other animals so yea I'm sure if we lived back then especially you grain heads you wouldn't' make 1 year.

Clear up autoimmune disorders? Nice regurge there. All you've done is removed the stimuli, the autoimmunity is still there. Come on in and use your first post to try to bash guys that were finishing their degree in nutrition when you were graduating 1st grade. Who's talking about grains in here? We're talking about bandwagon fad diets and elitist athletic groups. We've seen them come and go and we're all up to date on gluten and gut health, thanks for explaining it to us though. God, last night was like attack of the know-it-all newb night.

Clear up autoimmune disorders? Nice regurge there. All you've done is removed the stimuli, the autoimmunity is still there. Come on in and use your first post to try to bash guys that were finishing their degree in nutrition when you were graduating 1st grade. Who's talking about grains in here? We're talking about bandwagon fad diets and elitist athletic groups. We've seen them come and go and we're all up to date on gluten and gut health, thanks for explaining it to us though. God, last night was like attack of the know-it-all newb night.

lol, nice finishing touches, M.

Besides that, I recently talked to a nutritionist (freshly graduated one with up-to-date schooling..if that matters) and she told me to not be a fool to the marketing ploys of diets and gluten-free stuff. According to science, the only people that have an "intolerance" to gluten products are in fact people with the auto-immune disease called Celiac disease which according to her only about 2-5% of the population has such a disease.

So you dropped all grains from your diet, which would include wheat, any bread, pastas, quinoa, etc etc (which by the way are very, very nutritionally sound) and you claim that you feel less "bloated"? Well duh! You just killed 75% of all starches from your diet. Of course you are gonna lean up! Of course you are gonna carry less water weight! Starches are known to cause the body to hold water more effectively and it is a well-understood approach to cut those types out when you want to dry out and get ripped.

But who lives in pre-contest mode longer than 10% of the year!?!?! Paleo and gluten-free is a marketing ploy. Don't believe me? Go to a grocery store like Target for instance and find a regular sauce on the shelf and then find the gluten free version - the first thing that should jump out at you is the 300% price increase for "Gluten-Free" products!

Besides that, I recently talked to a nutritionist (freshly graduated one with up-to-date schooling..if that matters) and she told me to not be a fool to the marketing ploys of diets and gluten-free stuff. According to science, the only people that have an "intolerance" to gluten products are in fact people with the auto-immune disease called Celiac disease which according to her only about 2-5% of the population has such a disease.

So you dropped all grains from your diet, which would include wheat, any bread, pastas, quinoa, etc etc (which by the way are very, very nutritionally sound) and you claim that you feel less "bloated"? Well duh! You just killed 75% of all starches from your diet. Of course you are gonna lean up! Of course you are gonna carry less water weight! Starches are known to cause the body to hold water more effectively and it is a well-understood approach to cut those types out when you want to dry out and get ripped.

But who lives in pre-contest mode longer than 10% of the year!?!?! Paleo and gluten-free is a marketing ploy. Don't believe me? Go to a grocery store like Target for instance and find a regular sauce on the shelf and then find the gluten free version - the first thing that should jump out at you is the 300% price increase for "Gluten-Free" products!

And just to be clear about my experience, I've had diets so strict that they'd make this Paleo look like a field trip to candy land. Chicken, dry oats, and greens. Really, did it for 3-4 weeks straight.

Did I feel awesome? If it weren't for the Test/Tren combo, I might've gone insane and jumped off a cliff or something to that extent. It was horrible.

And just to be clear about my experience, I've had diets so strict that they'd make this Paleo look like a field trip to candy land. Chicken, dry oats, and greens. Really, did it for 3-4 weeks straight.

Did I feel awesome? If it weren't for the Test/Tren combo, I might've gone insane and jumped off a cliff or something to that extent. It was horrible.

I like most aspects of the diet, to be totally honest. I used to eat 200-300 tums a month until I removed gluten completely although I am not celiac. I also believe GMO foods causes an obnoxious amount of gut health problems. Once I removed these two, life has been easy. Personal choice that applies only to me. And i respect all others opinions. You can only read so many studies in a day and at the end of it you're usually only an expert at what works best for yourself... Its been annoying lately, someone creates an account and goes right to town explaining shyt to experienced bb'ers like they aren't familiar with the last decade's worth of fad diets.

I like most aspects of the diet, to be totally honest. I used to eat 200-300 tums a month until I removed gluten completely although I am not celiac. I also believe GMO foods causes an obnoxious amount of gut health problems. Once I removed these two, life has been easy. Personal choice that applies only to me. And i respect all others opinions. You can only read so many studies in a day and at the end of it you're usually only an expert at what works best for yourself... Its been annoying lately, someone creates an account and goes right to town explaining shyt to experienced bb'ers like they aren't familiar with the last decade's worth of fad diets.

This is true. I have no stomach issues until I start taking large doses of MCT oil on top of my heavy grains diet. If anything, I'll just stick to cutting grains in pre-contest prep. Carbs are so essential in my quest for swoleness that I'd never be able to make it by hindering my choices like that.

non-GMO stuff again would be a great option if it were affordable. When I become a millionnaire, I'll be sure to switch over to non-GMO, 100% organic foods. Until then, I'll keep eating the same stuff I have been eating since I was a child.

BTW, I also have a healthy amount of fresh veggies and deer meat that most people do not have regular access to. This I think makes a difference too.